Q&A: Cancer Vaccines

Every Sunday, Cancer Services publishes a Cancer Q&A in the Health Section of The Advocate.

Q: What are cancer vaccines?

A: In order to understand vaccines, it is important to know about the immune system. A person’s immune system, from birth, knows to protect the body from foreign substances like bacteria and viruses and then remembers it in order to fight it off if the foreign substance tries to attack again. A vaccine is a type of medicine that helps the body prepare to fight disease and infection. A weakened version of the virus or bacteria is introduced into the body so that the immune system learns how to fight it.

There are two types of vaccines: preventative and treatment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved three preventative vaccines, Gardasil®, Cervarix®, and a vaccine for the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Gardasil® and Cervarix®, protect against two types of HPV (types 16 and 18) that are responsible for 70% of cervical cancer cases. The HBV vaccine is important because it prevents hepatitis B infections, which can lead to liver cancer. Most children receive this vaccine shortly after birth.

The first treatment vaccine for cancer was approved in April 2010. Provenge® is approved for use in some men with metastatic prostate cancer. It is designed to stimulate an immune response to prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), an antigen that is found on most prostate cancer cells. In a clinical trial, sipuleucel-T increased the survival of men with a certain type of metastatic prostate cancer by about 4 months.

Other treatment vaccines are still in the development phase, being tested to see if they can prevent a cancer from growing, keep a cancer from recurring, shrink tumors, or kill cancer cells left by other treatments.

For more information contact Courtney Britton, librarian at Cancer Services of Greater Baton Rouge at (225) 927-2273, cbritton@cancerservices.org or visit the Resource Center at 550 Lobdell Avenue.

from the American Cancer Society:


American Cancer Society Report Finds Signs that Cancer Progress Could Stall
"An annual report from the American Cancer Society finds that despite recent declines in cancer death rates, there are worrisome signs that progress could stall."

Many Women Undertreated for Ovarian Cancer
"The study of hospital data from nine states found that women who were over 70, of African American or Hispanic race, or insured by Medicaid, were at greatest risk for undertreatment."


from National Public Radio:

Podcast from Journalist, Leroy Shievers, entitled My Cancer
"Leroy Sievers has spent a long career as a journalist covering war, genocide and natural disasters. Now after decades of observing other people's deaths, he is forced to contemplate his own. He's fighting cancer."